Topics & Events

The program participants with their certificates of program completion accompanied by the staff and representatives from the implementation organizations

On Sunday, July 17, 2022, Kopernik in collaborating with Aisyiyah, who is currently conducting the "Japan Partnership Program (JPP)" held a dissemination event, titled "Capacity Development of Online Sales Skills to Increase Women's Livelihoods" at the ‘Aisyiyah Office, Yogyakarta. The purpose of the event was to share the good practices from the training program conducted in the past year despite the challenges faced by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the first pilot, the training selected four female micro-enterprise entrepreneurs and provided intensive hands-on training and mentoring. One of the entrepreneurs mentioned that "without the training and mentoring, I would have never considered touching any of the digital platforms; it looked too complicated and not for me to benefit from. The four-month mentoring really supported me to overcome my mental barrier and encouraged me to work with the digital platform, which I was unfamiliar with prior to the training, to expand my business".

Representatives of JICA, Aisyiyah, Kopernik, four MSMEs beneficiaries, and potential candidates for the 2nd batch have also participated in the event. Mr. Moronaga, the Director of Partnership Program Division, JICA Tokyo, appreciated the positive responses from the beneficiaries who attended the 1st batch of the training and hoped that the training and mentoring offered through JPP could empower more women and enhance their livelihoods. "This program is a learning medium for all of us - Aisyiyah-Kopernik-JICA", said Mr. Moronaga. 'Knowing Aisyiyah as a 107-year-old, well-established Muslim women organization, always improves its movement in various fields of life", Mr. Moronaga was optimistic about the project implementation and the continuation of the collaboration to support the 2nd and 3rd batch of the female-owned micro-enterprises as well as building the online sales and marketing training platform, partnering with Kopernik and Aisyiyah.

Introduction of the implementing Organization - Aisyiyah

Dyah Suminar, the Head of Majelis Ekonomi dan Ketenagakerjaan (MEK) of Aisyiyah Yogyakarta

Aisyiyah was founded in 1917 as a women's organization under Muhammadiyah, one of the two largest Islamic organizations in Indonesia. As an autonomous women organization, Aisyiyah contributes to women empowerment by strengthening women participation in all social and economic aspects, ranging from the field of social, educational, health, and religious sectors.

Information on Aisyiyah: please visit the following link

• Aisyiyah (external link)

Introduction of the implementing Organization - Kopernik

Kopernik was founded in 2010 to bring innovative approaches to solve social and environmental challenges. It has two pillars of activities; namely, "lean experimentation" and "solutions in action", through which innovative approaches are tested, compared and promoted. The JPP for "Livelihood Improvement Support and Capacity Building for Female Entrepreneurs through Technical Supports on Online Business" which collaborated with ‘Aisyiyah is part of the capacity development activities as "solutions in action". One of the major activities and achievements of Kopernik in Indonesia, addressing capacity development and in relation to the partnership with JICA in the past was the BOP business survey conducted from March 2017 - March 2019. This project aimed for an expansion of improving the education standard in Indonesia by training teachers using interactive video materials and localizing the educational content produced in Japan, tailored to the Indonesian context.

Information on Kopernik: please visit the following link

• Kopernik (external link)

Project Summary of the JPP for "Livelihood Improvement Support and Capacity Building for Female Entrepreneurs through Technical Supports on Online Business"

Improvement in the quality of life for those who are marginalized is a big challenge in Indonesia. Whilst the large portion of the Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises are owned by women in Indonesia, female entrepreneurs struggle more to succeed in their businesses as they face more barriers than their male counterparts. The pandemic has also brought additional challenges as offline business opportunities have been intervened. This project aims to support improving lives of female micro-entrepreneurs in Yogyakarta despite the pandemic by providing support in starting an online shop and marketing training. The project has successfully completed the first year of project implementation out of the 3 years of the implementation planned. The project is planned to be completed in 2024 with a target group of 24 women micro-entrepreneurs and 7 ‘Aisyiyah members.